Lord Of The Flies

2 Pages 425 Words

Lord of the Flies

Four elements of symbolism in Lord of the Flies by William Golding are the conch which represents authority and order, Piggy’s glasses which represents knowledge and insight, the use of war paint which reveals true inner being and the hunt our war like nature. These elements are symbolic to the story like the novel is symbolic to our world. Golding shows us in this novel that the boys need law and order to survive. With out law and order in our society as in their tribes we would be savages.

Golding uses the conch through out the story as power of the beholder. The person holding the conch had the power, and it created order and rules since when it was used, everyone had to listen. “ I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.”(P.33, p.15) “We’ll have rules! He cried excitedly. “ Lots of rules!…”(p.33, p.20)

Piggy’s glasses were used at the beginning of the story to start the signal fire. “ His specs- use them as burning glasses!”(P.40, p.16) While Piggy had them he was able to give advice to the group. However, after the glasses are broken, the group loses what insight they had because piggy was not able to see, therefore he was not able go give his knowledge and insights.

The war paint was a rejection of society. In a way, when they put on the mask of war paint, they took off the mask of society. And revealed their true inner selves which was savage. “ The chief was sitting there, naked to the wrist, his face blocked out in white and red.”(P.160, p.1) By hiding their face they were able to act like the true beast inside them.

The hunting by the boys was symbolic to the true nature of mankind and society in general. “ Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(P.152, p.1) All represent the lust for violence and power. As society, this fear drives human kind to conquer by war.

Human nature has b...